Show The President's Message In All Conscience EVERY WHETHER aware of it or is a for teaching children school for character kindergarten or first-grade teacher of behaving Any time child arrives on the school will affirm that by the a ethics of some He doorstep he already has a code of comes to respecting or rebelling against with an attitude toward himself rule and He comes with cither a thriving and other He comes defective one growing conscience or an THE ETHICAL INFLUENCE of classmates with the influence of later compete and community may parents but never completely supplants or supersedes It The ethical imprint of early family life may be dulled or smudged or blurred But it is never completely erased or To discover how indelible it is we need only probe the recesses of our own WE WANT OUR CHILDREN to learn respect for authority and to be law But ethics obviously cm-bodies more than compliance with the Law is a minimum It restrains only gross violations of decent conduct There is no law against only against perjury There is no law against only against libel or slander There is no law against dishonesty until it reaches the proportions of fraud or No law compels us to live for something immediate gains and personal gratification No law compels us to be charitable What is truly ethical or moral conduct cannot be legislated BECAUSE VALUES ARE FREELY chosen it has been popular in the past quarter century to say they cannot be imposed on The popular catch phrase is that values are not taught I is only a And it is dangerous if it is presumed to be a whole To be values are caught that absorbed through But children are not exposed to good example They are surrounded bv bad examples as well as even in the conduct of the most conscientious and excellent for no one can be a perfect AND CHILDREN ARE NOT discriminating imitators Children lack the experience and wisdom to discriminate between what is admirable and to be what is and to be what is first rate and what second They have to be taught in and church and by every teaching technique we know by approval and as well as by example to love what they ought to love and hate what they ought to We dare not take the chance that moral principles will be Immorality and unethical conduct are also SOME OTHER I have contributed to make our ethical teaching timid and faltering Over the past years parents have been constrained by warnings of the dangers of and guilt I believe we are now on firmer We have learned that too great permissiveness is as harmful as too great We know that youngsters need We know they need and want a guiding Without some restraint and self-control fails to Without some guilt conscience is not possible HOME IS THE PLACE WHERE conscience is enforced through the gentle power of love or love and the infinite love of Tn developing ethical standards low is our strongest ally ABOVE ALL CHILDREN want the love and approval of their To please their to win and keep their they curb their own desires and accept their Parents must set standards and explain They must enforce them through guidance and discipline They must reinforce them through example and discussion PARENTS ARE DOING an extremely conscientious job in transmitting moral and spiritual values to their But however conscientious parents may however great their influence on children's ethical they are not Homes arc not isolated islands or impregnable The materialistic values of the market place and the mass media penetrate like SURELY THERE IS DESPERATE need for a immediate investment of our energies to reinforce morality In American And the outlook is Ours Is far from a complacent or self-satisfied society No society that criticizes itself as severely and relentlessly as we have been doing in the past few years is let alone Acknowledgment of error and failure and shortcomings is the beginning of THE QUALITY OF OUR SOCIETY depends upon individual effort and collective We re not powerless to act for good In our and other community organizations wc have moral power and the will to choose right from to make this nation and this earth a place where peace and truth and pity and mercy WORKING TOGETHER WE CAN in the words of Tennyson's Ring out the the the sin The faithless coldness of our times Ring out false pride in place and The civic slander and the spite Ring in the love of truth and Ring in the common love of Ring out old shapes of foul Ring out the narrowing lust of Ring out the thousand wars of Ring in the thousand years of Ring in the valiant man and The larger the kindlier Ring out the darkness of the Ring In the Christ that is to be MARGARET E. JENKINS National Congress of Parents and Teachers |